Giant non-fandom friending meme

[liv]

Here's the thing: a lot of people are about ready to leave LJ over the latest shenanigans. But they don't want to make the leap to Dreamwidth because, frankly, there isn't enough going on here. The site is smaller, so there are fewer posts, and fewer cool people to meet. And all their friends are on LJ, which is of course a self-perpetuating situation: if "everybody" is still on LJ, then there's a huge disincentive against moving, which means that everybody continues to be on LJ.

Lots of people have realized that the best way to address this issue is, well, creating content. Some people are organizing collective efforts to create more content. This is a great idea, except for one small problem: the people who are really good at organizing and creating content are mainly fandom. I have nothing at all against fandom, but I'm not really part of it, and I think that a lot of other people who feel similarly are being put off because they see DW as yet another clubhouse for the cool fandom kids.

But I am going to take a leaf from fandom's book: I'm going to cease sitting around complaining about how DW is too quiet. Instead I'm going to participate in creating content and drawing attention to the cool stuff that already exists. So, I propose a giant non-fandom friending meme (thanks, delight). If you would like find some new, interesting people to read, or make new friends, or just help highlight how much cool stuff there is on DW, please comment to this post.

You're welcome to say whatever you like, but here's a suggested template:
Your identity: doesn't have to be A/S/L, but anything that you think people should know about you to be able to decide whether they're likely to be interested in getting to know you.
What you are passionate about
How you use Dreamwidth
A link to a recent post of yours that is characteristic of your journal or writing style.
A link to a journal on Dreamwidth you think people might enjoy reading, even if they don't know the writer personally.

Footnote 1: Some people have moral or technical objections to Dreamwidth, or actively prefer LJ. That's totally cool with me – this post isn't addressed to you. I'm looking to involve people who would like to make the move, but are put off because there isn't enough to read or enough people to meet here. I am not at all proselytizing, in other words, just doing my bit to fix what I see as the biggest glaring problem with DW. Other people may see other problems, and I am not trying to fix those.

Footnote 2: If you are involved in fandom, you're extremely welcome to participate. Perhaps you'd like to meet someone who shares some of your less fannish interests. Or you are welcome to go and join in some of the more explicitly fandom-related activities going on instead.

I am going to post this now, rather than waiting until the official three-week fest, because I think now is while the iron is hot and people are motivated to move to a new site. But I'll link it again when the fest starts up on 26^th April, around the one-year anniversary of Dreamwidth entering Open Beta. I don't have any strong opinions about the DW-only content thing, and you don't have to be participating in that to participate in this meme.

So, go forth and friend!

ETA: And if you like the idea, please link this post all over the place. Or make your own version, or whatever, but mainly spread the word as much as possible

Comments

[kaptainvon]

Hello! Von is not actually my given name, but I answer to it and it's written on my coffee mug, so it probably counts as real by now. I have a chronic fear of introductions and identifications and consequently find this sort of thing deeply awkward.

*swigs wine*

Let's see. I'm from the UK. I teach English and Drama to young adults and mature students. I hope, eventually, to introduce myself as a Doctor of Necromancy and not be lying. I used to speak four languages, play two instruments, and write increasingly original fiction more naturally than I could speak. I have neglected all these things of late, and that makes me sad sometimes.

*swigs wine again*

Instead of doing those things, I play games - miniature wargames and devolved roleplaying games that are more like armchair theatre than anything that has formal rules. I like steampunk but don't like making a lifestyle statement out of things I like. I think in parentheses and frequently forget about little things like commas, or breathing. I am an incorrigible pedant, and otherwise a shame and an embarrassment to be around: I talk to myself, sing in public, break into impassioned monologues at the drop of a hat, and can fall over while standing perfectly still on flat ground. I watch a lot of Doctor Who, but we're not here to talk about that today.

*swigs wine, considers, swigs wine again, for longer*

I use the Dreamwidth thing to pull together content from lots of places where I used to blog, sort of hoping that I could get people into gaming and people into media fandom and people into occult history and people into theatre and people into Victoriana or the erotic potential of artificial intelligence (no, not at the same time... although...) to talk to each other, but then I sort of stopped writing content for a bit, and it sort of stopped working out. I should get onto that, really. I'm interested in social justice, but I don't write about it much - I'm not sure I get to have an opinion on some things.

Oh, and by the way - you never have to ask me about subscribing, just go ahead, and I don't believe in 'inactive entries'. Read back and comment on whatever takes your fancy - that's what email notification's there for.

*contemplates wine, takes another swig*

Here's a post I made about how I design narrative spaces for roleplaying games, which is the sort of thing I'd like to write more often.

legionseagle is one of my favourite Dreamwidthy people - full of righteous wrath and with a wicked sense of humour. If I'm allowed to cheat and mention two things, I'm really liking actyourwage, too.

*drains glass, stands up, wonders how strong the wine actually IS*

There. That wasn't so bad. Dunno what I was scared of, really.

[jenett]

Teaching English and Drama is lovely (school librarian here, with a theatre-history professor father, so I grew up with the Theatre bits).

But you really had me at throwing occult history into the mix.

(I'm also a long-time Who fan, way back, but I don't post about it much, and I'm not particularly fannish-community about it. Just, y'know, have seen everyone of the older series ever shown in the US, most more than once, and a goodly slice of the new series, though I think I'm still needing to track down one or two.)

[kaptainvon]

It is lovely. I was enjoying it before I was asked if I wanted to try Drama and now I love it, like pie.

I also really need to write more about occult history, although I should perhaps warn you that my big 'thing' is necromancy, and semantic drift in prohibitive literature about necromancy, so I'll be writing more about medieval Christianity than about modern spiritualism. That said... writing this has reminded me that I have all those notes on my never-really-instigated figure-of-the-magus-and-chaos-magic project, which should really be instigated at some future point.

[senmut]

((+waves+)) I was terrified of the new show, because I grew up on all of the Classic I could get a hold of.

[st_aurafina]

I like the way you drink!

We seem to have some similar interests. Like wine. And Doctor Who. I'm going to add you.

[kaptainvon]

And likewise.

[mutantenemy]

*uncorks a lovely Chilean merlot and refills your glass*

Subscribing.

See what I did there? I didn't ask, I told you.

*sips the wine* Oh yeah. That's a gum grabber. :)

[kaptainvon]

I see what you did there and approve most strongly. Also, we appear to have the same taste in booze. Huzzah!

[surpassingly]

I enjoyed reading that post you linked. Subscribing!